


Then, After

by purplefox



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Possibilities related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:54:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5455619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplefox/pseuds/purplefox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After it all Orochimaru goes on what he thought would be the final journey</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then, After

It started with a lot of walking. Orochimaru had expected that. Admittedly he had expected flashes of his past as he walked. Maybe regrets thrown at his face as he walked alone. 

Instead there was just him an the sparse landscape. It was not even familiar in anyway. 

The only thing that bothers him is that he is alone. After all he chose this. Decided by himself that it was time, he had accomplished everything he would ever want to do. 

But around him is simply nothing. There is nothing to do but walk forward. He would achieve nothing by just sitting where he stood. 

There was no sense of time in the unchanging landscape. He was just moving forward.

He had no real idea how long it was before he saw him. It had felt like a while. 

A long while before the landscape changed and he saw the man sitting in the middle of his path. 

Vastly different from how Orochimaru had last saw him. 

It was as though time had reversed. Leaving the old hardened man. Giving Orochimaru the man he had seen long before. 

"You're late." Jiraiya grinned. "Did you take a wrong turn somewhere? Stop to see sights? Take your time so your pretty feet wouldn't get sore?"

His voice was exactly the same. He was the Jiraiya of before. Tall and solid his hair a wild tangled mess behind him. His Jounin uniform and armor and his smile. 

Orochimaru did not want to admit how much he had missed that wide grin. 

"Why are you here?" Orochimaru asked curiously. He wanted to ask more questions but this was the most important. Considering how they had parted. 

Seeing Jiraiya waiting for him was the last thing he would expect. 

He had been expecting to see his parents maybe Sarutobi Sensei. Heavens knew the man had certainly forgiven for killing him if their team up in the Fourth War could say anything. 

Considering how they had parted. How Jiraiya had pursued him. Having Jiraiya meet him was unexpected. 

"Why wouldn't I be here?" Jiraiya frowned. Orochimaru was fascinated by the fang claw marks under Jiraiya's eye that were short like it had been in their twenties. Late twenties. 

"After Konoha."Orochimaru said dryly. "I never expected that after all we did to each other you would be the one to escort me. Will you ramble on and on about my failures? Is that why you are here?"

Jiraiya contemplated him before he stood up. He brushed at his Jounin pants his face blank. "Don't you know where you are now Orochimaru?" He asked softly. 

Orochimaru scoffed. "Considering I made the choice to come here yes I know. I'm dead. That doesn't explain why you are here to meet me."

"Why wouldn't I?" Jiraiya sounded confused. "Everything is finally over Oro."

Orochimaru winced at the name before folding his arms. He looked away from Jiraiya. "After I was resurrected. I learned of your death."

"It is ironic how we went the same way." Jiraiya chuckled. "Students."

"You ended up being right." Orochimaru mused. "About your path." Jiraiya's mouth turned down and he too looked away. 

"Yeah it took a long while to get there."

"I was a little disappointed not to see you during the war." Orochimaru chuckled. "I learned of what happened to your body." 

"It's a good thing they didn't bring me back." Jiraiya laughed. "Bad for your student anyway. That would not have gone well."

Orochimaru snorted. "Oh?"

Jiraiya grinned. "He is good but I know how to break that Jutsu. That can't hold me Orochimaru. I spent years tailing you and figuring out just how to undo anything you did." His mouth twisted. "After what you pulled with the Hokages I took measures for that as well."

Orochimaru thought for a minute. Jiraiya was strong but he was sure he could have overtaken him. He smirked. 

Jiraiya scowled. "You wouldn't have either."

"We will never know." Orochimaru shrugged. "But you look happy for someone who was murdered."

Jiraiya snickered. "That was cleared up. They've gone on now."

Finally something really interesting. Orochimaru examined the unchanging unending landscape around them before he questioned Jiraiya. "Gone on?"

"Yeah." Jiraiya was smiling a little sentimental. "They went on together."

"As in next life go on?" Orochimaru asked skeptically." 

"To what is after this." Jiraiya smirked. "It is time you know." He nodded in the direction to his left. "Everyone is waiting."

Orochimaru took the first step towards the new destination and Jiraiya fell in. Nothing really changed. The landscape was the same but the leisurely pace they were taking. It did nothing to soothe Orochimaru.

"I've seen Sensei you know?" Jiraiya laughed next to him. "Minato and Kushina. Well they came after me, something about the seal and whatever. Seeing Yahiko still that was a shock. He grew into something good! Then Nagato came and left. Konan was just so happy to be with them."

Orochimaru listened as Jiraiya talked on and on. About people he had seen and met. About the things he knew. The news he had received. 

"So who met you?" Orochimaru asked curiously.

"Hmm." Jiraiya mused. "Yahiko. Then Sensei. They came to meet me."

"Came from where." Orochimaru asked dryly. "You keep speaking as though the dead do traveling." Jiraiya only gave him a quick smirk in response. 

"Do you remember Iwa?" Jiraiya blurted out as he fought not to look in his direction. 

"I'm aware of the nation yes." Orochimaru mused.

"I mean." Jiraiya swallowed. "That time."

When he had been drugged and half out his mind. Staring at Orochimaru as though he had never seen him before and calling him beautiful. 

Oh he certainly remembered that. He had forced the memory away but as usual things connected Jiraiya never allowed him to have his way for very long. 

"How long did you think about that." Orochimaru asked quietly. "I never took it seriously. You were drugged. You could have died with that amount of toxin in your system."

"I knew who I was seeing." Jiraiya's voice was just a little hoarse. "I knew who I was with even as I burned on the inside thinking I was going to die."

"Jiraiya." Orochimaru felt tired. "Enough." After everything he had discovered. That he realized way after it was too late.

After he fought to make amends the only way he knew how then forged onto a new path. He chose death. It had been his choice because it was time to move on. He was no longer needed. The last thing he wanted was to rehash the past. 

"If I had said something then. Or in any of the times after." Jiraiya's voice was so contemplative that Orochimaru wanted to choke him in order to keep him from talking. "All my times of hesitation really made us pay for it. Orochimaru I failed you."

"I don't need this." Orochimaru was tense and angry. "I don't want your guilt Jiraiya. We were both adults and what we did was of our own free will. I knew what I was doing."

"You changed. You changed and you became happy." Jiraiya stressed. " It should have been me who helped you, me. I was your friend I knew you. That was the reason I chased you."

"And let me go every time." Orochimaru sneered. "You were playing at it and I don't know how Sensei let you play at it for so long. You let me go at every chance you got. The only time you were serious about it was after Sensei died and I went to Tsunade. Even then you could have killed me."

Jiraiya remained silent at his side for a short while. "I never gave up hope on helping you." He said softly. 

"It wasn't what I needed." Orochimaru scowled. 

"From what I heard you finally got everything you needed." Jiraiya sighed. "I don't know how of all the Sannin you were the one to have a child."

Orochimaru felt breathless. "How do you know?"

"I've been watching you." A small shrug. "I know almost everything." 

That was slightly alarming. Orochimaru thought on the thing he had done in secret. It was not possible that Jiraiya knew of that too. 

"He's great." Jiraiya snickered. "Our kid."

Orochimaru felt weak again. "Jiraiya."

"It's what I would have wanted." Jiraiya admitted. "I never allowed myself to think about it. My students were my precious children and grandchildren. But I now have a kid. Thank you."

"I saw." Orochimaru sounded hoarse and he hated himself for it. "There was in a different reality. We were...."

"So we did get our heads on straight." Jiraiya mused. "It's funny. Especially since you waited until you were like Seventy to get him."

Orochimaru scoffed. Of course that was what Jiraiya focused on.

"I gave him as much freedom as possible. He knows of you."

Jiraiya laughed. "I'm almost scared to ask what you told him."

The landscape was changing. Orochimaru noted it before he look at Jiraiya in confusion. 

"I thought." He said hesitantly. "You would have chosen to wait for Tsunade."

Jiraiya laughed. A loud booming laugh even as he looked behind them. His expression was fond. "She is taking forever. And her waiting party is already huge." He chuckled again. "I don't want to get between her and Dan. And I know Nawaki has plenty to say to her when she finally comes along."

Orochimaru looked at him seeing how free and easy Jiraiya was. Like the child he had been. Nothing like the guarded man he had become. 

"So we won't wait?"

"It is more about us now don't you agree?" A wall began to form in front their eyes. A huge gray wall with a solid red door. 

"That's it?" Orochimaru murmured. 

"Part." Jiraiya shrugged. "We can go to the pure land. Greet everyone."

"Or?" Orochimaru pressed.

"Take another spin at life." Jiraiya shrugged.

"I can't believe you decided to come without her." Orochimaru muttered. "It is not like you."

The door slowly creaked open in front of them at their approach. 

"Well we can always come back for her. We aren't trapped here."

Orochimaru was going to respond but the door opened and what he saw took his breath away. His soul felt complete at just the glimpse. It was a better feeling than gaining immortality had been. 

This was perfect. 

"Shall we go?" Jiraiya's voice was cheerful. Playful. "We could always take a quick spin. Be reborn again. Time doesn't work like we thought it does. Or we could go, see your parents. See Sensei. Then we could pick Tsunade up later. Or just let Dan do it."

Orochimaru placed a finger over Jiraiya's lips as his eyes were fixed on what he could see. It was nothing like what people spoke of. What even was this?

Jiraiya nipped his finger playfully but Orochimaru ignored it. Until Jiriaya licked his finger that was. He sighed and removed his hand. 

"What happens when we step through that door?" He asked softly.

"Anything you want." Jiraiya whispered softly. "And I'll be with you every step of the way."

It had been a possibility here. It had happened there. Now without the hardship of the world it was happening now. Orochimaru smirked before lacing his fingers with Jiraiya's.

"What are we waiting for?"


End file.
